


Blood Black Roses

by strixus



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: AU, Cliche, M/M, Vampires, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-31
Updated: 2009-12-31
Packaged: 2017-10-05 12:57:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strixus/pseuds/strixus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone seems to write one of these eventually. Duo is a vampire - what happens when Heero discovers his secret? Ok, cut me some slack, I was 19 when I wrote this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood Black Roses

**Author's Note:**

> "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."   
> \-- Samuel Johnson

Duo Maxwell sat alone in the darkness of his small bedroom in the safe house, holding his head in his hands, fingertips pressed into his forehead. His head hurt – but his head always hurt. He was hungry – but, he was always hungry. So many thoughts reeled in his head, so much noise and turmoil that he could never quiet. He could do this, he thought to himself, he could do this, and he would survive it as he had so much else in his life. He clenched his jaw, trying to quell the trembling which threatened to spread to his entire body, and found himself digging his nails into his palms so hard he thought they would bleed. They didn't.

He lay back on the small bed and closed his eyes, trying to get as close to sleep as his tormented mind would allow. But no matter how he tried, no matter how much of his incredible will he focused to the task, the same things came unbidden into his mind over and over: blue eyes as clear as crystal.

\---

Heero could feel Duo looking at him even before he consciously realized Duo was standing in the doorway. It had always been that way with Duo, somehow, more so than it was with anyone else. He was trained to know when people were present without using his eyes, but there was something about Duo which, when Duo wished to be seen, almost seemed to scream it as an order into the back of his brain. Heero obeyed the feeling, as he did time and time again, and looked up to find Duo leaning against the doorframe, regarding him impassively.

If only he knew what those eyes do to me when ever he looks at me, Heero thought to himself, repressing a shudder of simultaneous fear and lust. He doesn't even know, he thought with a sigh.

"Hn?" Heero resorted to a noncommittal greeting hoping to give his voice a moment to level before it betrayed him.

"Are you going to sit there all day, looking at the same screen on that lap top until it burns its self into it?" Duo observed. "Last time I walked through here, you had the same screen up. That was four hours ago."

Heero tried to think of something to say in reply, but instead sat silent, hoping Duo would take it for his usual stoic treatment of anyone interrupting him.

"Oh come off it, Heero," Duo walked into the room and threw himself unceremoniously down on the couch opposite the chair Heero had claimed. "Damn, not a word out of you for two days. I'm going stir crazy just staring at the top of your head."

"Then," Heero said taking a deep breath, "Why don't you go out?" He forced the words out as a growl, trying to put a threat behind it. From the look Duo gave him, the threat had either misfired, or missed entirely.

"Alone? Are you kidding?" Duo grumbled. "No thanks. I'd rather go stir crazy here with you than be out alone."

Heero knew Duo was baiting him, he could feel it, and knew he had no choice but to rise to the bait. He's going to do this again, Heero thought, trying not to let his stomach knot up with anger. Another night, going out, watching him dance with anything that moves close enough, and ignoring me while I get drunk enough that I can almost ignore him, and then coming home and trying to sleep it off. "Fine then," he growled, or at least attempted to, "Where do you want to go?"

"Some place different." Duo smiled mysteriously.

\--

The place the cab let them out in town was in a very run down area of the city, an old industrial complex renovated into condominiums and then abandoned when no buyers could be found. The night closed in around them, cloying and damp, as they exited the cab, Heero trying to ignore the squelching sound his boots made before he stepped up onto the curb. Duo stood next to him, blending into the night in a black leather full length trench coat. Heero felt suddenly very exposed, and wished Duo would make a move towards where ever it was he had led them to.

Without seeming to even glace around him, Duo headed for a small alley entrance near them, and vanished into the shadows. Heero followed quickly, trying not to loose Duo in the dark, yet also trying to take in more of their surroundings, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.

Not like this whole place doesn't reek of an ambush or a mugging, Heero thought to himself as he stopped short behind Duo.

Duo knocked on a door that seemed nearly invisible till you looked closely at the wall, and a small slit of light opened as a doorman peered out. Eyes met, and the slit slammed shut, followed closely by the click of a lock. The door swung inwards, and Duo stepped down and into a dimly lit, smoky room, Heero following on his heels.

He found himself the sudden center of nearly fifteen pairs of eyes from all around the room, and reflexively moved closer to Duo, who was handing his coat to the doorman casually. Duo turned to look at the rest of the people in the room, and each returned to what they were doing, slowly turning away. Heero felt dizzy, unsure if it was the sweetly sick smell of what ever smoke was in the air, or the sudden attention from so many strangers.

"Just ignore them, Heero, they aren't used to strangers." Duo smirked, "Come on, let me grab you something to drink and let me introduce you to my favorite bartender in the world." Duo moved towards the bar, stepping across the room like a big cat walking through a group of lesser individuals in its pack.

"Hey, Vince," Duo called as he sat down on one of the black leather and chrome bar stools, pulling Heero to sit beside him. "Pour me what ever is good tonight, and get me a bottle of the good sake from out from under the counter." The alabaster statue of a bartender complied, and poured Duo a wine glass full of a very dark red wine, then set a tall bottle of cloudy sake on the counter next to it, along with a pair of tumblers with ice. Duo nodded, and the bartender cracked the seal on the bottle, pouring it into the two glasses.

Heero looked around confused. Duo had never brought him here before, yet everyone here seemed to know Duo as a regular of the place. He recognized none of the people he could see, though most were hidden in the smoke and gloom of the room, but he could feel them each occasionally glancing at him in turn. This he did not like, and every trained instinct in his body told him the place was not normal.

"Relax, Heero." Duo said in nearly a whisper, and pushed one of the glasses of sake towards him. "Drink, its excellent sake; don't let it get watered down."

\--

Some time later, Heero was startled out of his continual stare into the bottom of his glass of sake by a very female voice beside him.

"Hello, stranger," Heero looked up into slanted deep black eyes in a slender feminine face. "Haven't seen you here before, and it is so rare to meet a stranger here." Her laughter was like ringing crystal.

"Back off, Kumiho," Duo said sharply, "He is here with me."

"Oh, so damned protective, Shinigami," She made a very unpleasant face, as though she taisted something bad, "Can you not let him look for himself before you curdle his brain with your stuffiness." She gave a toss of her head, and Heero found himself noticing how very attractive the woman attached to those dark eyes was. She was dressed in all black, and very slender in all the right places, her dress revealing just enough of everything to be seductive yet not distasteful. A dribble of diamonds formed a fine line of a necklace which pointed with a ruby tear into her subtle but noticeably ample cleavage.

"I can tell you already, he doesn't like what he sees." Duo growled. Heero sat trying not to look at the woman, but failing miserably. He was so intent on not trying that it took him a moment to follow what Duo was saying as subtext. He nearly did a double take to turn to look at Duo.

The woman Duo had called Kumiho laughed her crystal laugh again. "Oh doesn't he?" She sneered at Duo. "Oh look, you seem to have surprised your young friend with how well you know him. So subtle, Shinigami! You are loosing your touch." And with that, she got up and walked away into the darkness, smoke closing in behind her, filling the void of her passing. From the darkness, she laughed - this time it sounded like a room full of shattering crystal.

Duo growled, and Heero turned to look at him. "Ignore her, Heero. She is trouble poured into a dress."

\--

Some time much later in the night, Heero suddenly found himself having trouble focusing his eyes and keeping his head from slumping forward onto the black lacquered wood of the bar. Heero could only assume that Duo had noticed, for he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and heard Duo's voice saying that it was best they left. Heero was only half aware of leaving the club, of feeling the night air on his skin again, and of the appearance of the cab just where it had been hours before.

Duo helped him into the back seat of the cab, and slid in beside him, saying something to the driver as he did. The cab jolted into motion, and Heero had to fight to remain sitting upright. It took him a few moments to realize he had lost the battle, and slumped against Duo without realizing it. He was awash in the rich, cool smell of the leather trench coat, mixed with a strange, coppery and floral smell that must be Duo's skin. It was intoxicating, making him want to press into the coat, move to find skin to touch.

"Heero," Duo's voice came through the fog to him, distant yet very clear. "Heero, be still. We are almost home."

There was a flush of heat from Duo's skin, sudden, making Heero pull back slightly. Or at least he tried to. A thought of doubt, of wondering, drifted though his mind, questioning what he was doing, but it was gone like a ghost exposed to the sun. That smell, that wonderful smell, was all he could think about, and he kept moving closer to Duo, trying to drown himself in that smell.

A sudden strong hand wrapped its self around his wrist, which he realized was laying across Duo's upper thigh lazily as the pain of bone pushed against bone made him locate it in the fog of perception. The hand pushed away his forcefully, but stayed wrapped around the wrist in a restraining grip. At some point, even that pain vanished into the fog.

\--

Heero was distantly aware of being carried up the steps of the safe house and into one of the bedrooms. He didn't care which room, or where he was at all really; only that he could feel very strong arms holding him. Something in his mind had given up fighting the fog on the way back to the safe house, and when it had given out, he had quit remembering to question his own thoughts. Distantly, he could hear Duo's voice talking to him.

"That bitch. She must have slipped something into your drink when neither of us was looking. Knowing her," Duo growled, "she did it just to spite me."

Heero only half heard him, only half understood him. But he moved towards the voice, trying to be closer to the beautiful boy who was sitting on the bed so close to him. How long had he wanted Duo, how long had those violet eyes and chestnut braid tormented him in his dreams, and why was he only acting on these feelings now, he wondered? A hand touched black leather drawn tight over skin, and Heero remembered how wonderful Duo looked in those pants which clung to his hips like a second skin. His hand wandered, searching, touching, drawing closer to Duo's crotch.

The vice grip of Duo's hand closed around Heero's wrist again, and Heero tried to cry out in pain. What came out was only an inarticulate garble of syllables, and his vision grayed over for some amount of time he could not guess at.

"Heero, stop it. Stop it now."

The words penetrated the fog like an ice pick into the back of his brain. Rejection. Duo was rejecting him. Heero could not make his brain understand, but the shock soaked through the drug induced fog. Tears welled in his eyes, beyond his control. The perfect solder, reduced to tears, lying on a bed trying to fondle his fellow pilot, a boy no older than himself. His training was suddenly snapping back into place, his body suddenly stiff with mental barriers as they slammed shut within his mind.

Oh, God, no, please no, please no, not this. The thought repeated over and over in his mind. Duo, no, I didn't mean it like this, I didn't want it to be like this, he tried to say, but could form no words. All he could see were those violet eyes looking down on him with what must be revulsion and disgust.

He tried to shut down, tried to feel nothing. But his mind was too weak from the drug in his system to stop the wave of shame and self loathing that filled him. He tried to roll away from Duo, to escape those eyes looking at him like that, but found he could not move. His brain could not process exactly why, but he had no will to struggle despite all his instincts screaming at him to break free from what ever held him. All he could do was close his eyes and sob.

\--

Heero slowly opened his eyes, and his skull filled with a blinding light that tried to burn out his brain. Slowly, he forced them open, trying to remember where he was and what had happened, but the light drowned out everything. Just as suddenly the light was gone, replaced by the dim glow of a flame somewhere out of his vision. He tried to sit up, but found himself restrained by ropes around his wrists and ankles, securing him to the head and foot of the bed. His brain raced, trying to remember how he had come to be here.   
When he did, he wished he hadn't tried to.

Duo looking at him with those disgusted eyes as he had tried to crawl all over his fellow pilot. He had ruined any chance of ever getting close to Duo, ruined what had been trying to be a friendship, let alone any chance he would have ever had of telling Duo how he felt. All because he had let himself go, let his inhibitions and fears drop for one night. No wonder Duo had tied him to the bed and left him like that. Duo must have thought he had gone insane. Heero closed his eyes as shame washed over him anew.

"Heero," The voice startled him into opening his eyes, "Heero, you do not remember everything. Do not be so fast to judge yourself." Duo was sitting beside him on the bed, as though he had not moved from the night before. "You were under the influence of a very powerful drug, one not even your system could fight the effects of. It is meant to," Duo paused still out of Heero's sight, "It is meant to make a victim more willing, and to forget what happened afterwards."  
Silence followed for several minutes.  
"Forgive me, Heero. I should never have taken you to that place." Duo's voice was nearly a whisper. "I thought that if I took you there, I would be more comfortable. That I could confront you and tell you why," Something that sounded like a sob broke Duo's voice, "Tell you why I could never return your love like you want."  
Heero turned, trying to see Duo, and found himself looking at the back of his fellow pilot as he sat on the bed, silhouetted by a single candle light in the dark room. Duo was holding his head in one hand as though it hurt him, the other wrapped across his stomach as though he were trying not to be sick.   
"I tried so hard to make you not want me, Heero. I tried every trick I knew. But nothing I did made you turn away from me."  
Heero managed to part his lips, and tried to speak. "Duo," he said, his mouth filled with a foul taste and cottony texture.  
"Heero, please, let me finish. This is hard enough as it is." Heero fell silent. "Its not that I don't love you, Heero; it's the very opposite. I do love you. And for that reason, I can't let you close to me. I would," Duo's shoulders dropped, "I would hurt you, Heero."  
"It doesn't matter, Duo." Heero had no idea where he found the strength to say the words that had come to his mind. "I love you, Duo. It doesn't matter."  
Duo rounded on him, facing him, potassium chloride fire burring in the depths of his violet eyes. "You can't understand this. How can you say that?" The anger in Duo's voice was trying to hide pain. "You don't know what you are saying, Heero, you don't know at all." The fires died slowly, and Duo slumped tiredly. "Its not this," He said, waving his hands to indicate the ropes, "This was just to keep you safe from me last night." His hand went to his face again, trying to cover a wince of pain. When it came away, there was a dark trail across his face, like a tear track, but black in the candle light.   
"I don't know how else to tell you, but to show you, Heero. But if I show you, must promise never to tell anyone, or I will have to kill you. I don't want to kill you, but I will to protect myself."  
"What ever it is, Duo, I promise."

\--

Something dark seemed to pass over the young face, and the youth seemed to fade into an ageless beauty. When the eyes opened again, they were no longer violet, but a catlike yellow, silted and predatory. Duo stretched his neck, opening his mouth wide in a yawn which revealed nearly inch long fangs where his usually normal length canines had been only moments before.   
"You're a," Heero tried to finish the sentence, but couldn't find the words.  
"A vampire. Go ahead and say it, Heero, say it with all the fear and loathing every human feels towards us."  
Heero shook his head. "You're beautiful." He tried to reach a hand towards Duo but too late remembered the bonds that held him, jerking his shoulder painfully.   
Wonder and sock filled yellow eyes as they looked at Heero. "You, you aren't lying. I can smell when humans lie. And, you aren't." Another black track crossed Duo's face, and this time, Heero saw it fall from Duo's eye. A tear, Heero realized, a tear of blood. "How is this possible?"  
"I love you, Duo." More bravely he said, "Untie me, Duo, let me show you how much I love you."  
Duo leapt off the bed faster than Heero could see. "I can't, Heero, I wish I could let you but I can't. You still don't understand. But how could I expect you to." Duo half sobbed the last. "If I were to let myself go like that with you..."   
A strained look crossed Duo's ageless face, and yellow eyes pressed themselves closed again in a wince of pain. "It's been so hard trying to control myself around you as it is. You don't know how many nights I've sat outside your door, wanting…"  
"What will happen that you are so afraid of, Duo?" Heero couldn't quite understand where the bravery in his voice was coming from, or why he wasn't afraid of this beautiful monster that he loved.   
"I'll feed on you." The word hung in the air for a moment that seemed like a lifetime. "I can't do that, Heero. You aren't cattle, you aren't food. I love you. I can never hurt you like that."  
"Does it hurt?" Heero asked, taking Duo totally off guard. "Does it cause any permanent damage?"  
"I, don't know if it hurts or not. I have been told that it is actually," Duo swallowed, looking nervous, "Very pleasurable. But, if I do it too often, or drink too deeply, I could kill you, Heero."  
Words formed on Heero's lips before thoughts followed, but those thoughts were in agreement with what he said: "I trust you, Duo."

\--

The next morning Heero found himself looking in the bathroom mirror at his reflection, pondering a problem he had never faced before. Two dark purple circles, no bigger than two bug bites, surrounded by a small ring of irritated red flesh, marked his neck where Duo had drunk from him the night before. He owned nothing with a collar high enough to hide the marks, and there was nothing he could use to cover them in terms of make up, but they were too obvious for a casual observer to miss.   
What was he going to do about them?  
His answer came bounding through the bathroom door with a flashing white smile and laughing violet eyes. Duo wrapped his arms around Heero from behind, nuzzling against the other side of his neck from the bites. One of his new lover's hands held a black turtle neck shirt, which Heero took with a grateful smile.   
As he slipped into it, Duo said, "When you're ready come down stairs. I made breakfast. We are eating out on the front porch, it's a beautiful day."  
"Breakfast, wonderful, I'm starving." Heero grinned. Then something dawned on him. "Outside? Daylight? Wait a second, Duo aren't you supposed to…"  
Duo gave him a wicked grin, and his eyes flashed golden yellow for a moment. "I'm a lot older than you think I am, Heero. An old vampire can stand sunlight, and even can come to like it." Duo bounded back out of the bathroom, braid flying.  
Heero paused for a minute, and then asked at Duo's retreating back, "Just how old are you, anyway, Duo?"  
Duo turned and flashed him the golden eyed smile again. "There was a time," Duo paused, chuckling, "That some people called me Anubis, and worshiped me as a god. I haven't quite ever gotten over that." Duo laughed, and bounded off down the stairs.  
"I noticed." Heero grumbled under his breath.  
"I heard that!" Duo yelled from the bottom of the stairs.


End file.
